Ukraine FM confirms child killed in US was adopted in Ukraine

February 24, 2013, 16:39 UTC+3The Ukrainian Embassy in the US reported that the adopter, whose actions caused the death of the adopted child, is convicted and serves a sentence

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KIEV, February 24 (Itar-Tass) – Teenager Andrew Butler, who was killed by one of foster parents in the US state West Virginia, was adopted by the US citizens in 2003 on the verdict of the Kramatorsky Court in the Donetsk Region together with two other children. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported that this information was found in an inquiry, which the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States conducted.

On February 22, it was reported that the Russian Embassy in Washington received an alarm report about the death of the adopted child in the US. The inquiry found that he was adopted in Ukraine, but not in Russia. Meanwhile, Andrew Arthur Bulter, 13, turned out to be killed back in June 2011, when his adoptive father shot him down in the head. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not comment on this news report before.

The Ukrainian Embassy in the US reported that the adopter, whose actions caused the death of the adopted child, is convicted and serves a sentence. The consular workers of the embassy are taking the measures to provide the direct access to the children. Ukrainian diplomats will soon visit the residence place of the children and the adopter, who is under special patronage of the social service in West Virginia.

In this respect, Ukrainian Minister of Social Policy Natalia Korolevskaya asked the Foreign Ministry to carry out an inquiry of the state of health and the conditions of keeping the Ukrainian children, who were adopted by the foreign citizens. “We should get the reliable information about each child, who is registered in the consular departments and diplomatic missions of Ukraine,” the minister said. She noted that Ukrainian citizens adopt over 2,000 children every year, while the foreigners adopted 806 children in 2012.

According to the adoption rules, the adoptive parents should file a report about the conditions of living and the state of health of the adopted children in a consular department or a diplomatic mission of Ukraine no less than once a year within first three years after adoption (later once in three years until the child turns 18).

“Unfortunately, the level of reporting is very low in several countries. For instance, it does not exceed 30% in the US. I am convinced that our country should be interested more actively in the fate of the adopted children. We should be confident that the adopted child is all right, regardless the citizenship of the adoptive parents,” Korolevskaya said.

The Foreign Ministry reported that as of February 1, 2012, 21,721 underage Ukrainian citizens were registered at foreign diplomatic missions.

Last January Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich submitted in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, a bill for the ratification of the convention for the protection of children and cooperation in international adoption. The document envisages changing the adoption rules of Ukrainian children by foreigners. In particular, the citizens from the signatory nations of the convention will be given a priority for adoption, as well as the countries, with which appropriate agreements were previously signed, and the relatives of these children.

The bill also contains several Ukrainian proposals for the text of the convention that should be approved by the signatory nations. In particular, Ukraine offers to permit the leaving of a child abroad only after the court verdict on his adoption enters into force and to permit the activities of a foreign agent on the Ukrainian territory only if he will be following the fate of the adopted child.

The faction of the ultra-right party Freedom in the Ukrainian parliament stated that it will insist on a ban for foreign adoptions of Ukrainian children. “We are convinced that amid a deep demographic crisis and after Ukraine survived the horrors of the Holodomor, the foreigners cannot be so easily given one of the main treasures of the nation – its genetic pool,” leader of the party Oleg Tyagnibok stated. “Meanwhile, we understand perfectly that many years should pass with normal authorities in Ukraine, until our country will be able to control through its diplomatic services the conditions, in which our children adopted by the foreigners live abroad,” he underlined.